11/17/2014
AC4P Brings Area Schools Together in Chardon
Common ideology brought them together last week and the hope of caring and acting will help move them separately forward.
High school students from around Northeast Ohio gathered to learn more about the power of bringing out the best in others at the first ever Northeast Ohio Actively Caring for People Conference at Chardon High School.
“It’s an amazing ride to see students develop and now to teach others,” said Virginia Tech’s Shane McCarty, a leader of the Actively Caring for People Movement.
Chardon High School hosted the event that included organizing schools Orange, Berkshire and Virginia Tech with participating schools Chagrin Falls, Newbury, West Geauga, Cuyahoga Heights, Streetsboro, James A. Garfield and Willoughby South.
The three-day event, starting Tuesday, included an evening overview of AC4P open to the community with about 100 members in attendance at Chardon Middle School, an afternoon high school assembly, potluck dinner with the leading schools at Orchard Hills Park, and a concluding four-hour youth conference with all participating schools.
The AC4P grassroots movement started at Virginia Tech following the campus tragedy on April 16, 2007, when Seung-Hui Cho, a student, opened fire on the campus, killing 32 in what reports have called one of the deadliest mass shootings in the nation’s history. The movement is modeled after AC4P founder and VT Professor E. Scott Geller’s ideas of actively caring to reduce workplace injury and create safer working environments.
According to Geller’s book, “Actively Caring for People: Cultivating a Culture of Compassion,” small intentional acts of kindness can change the world and every act of kindness has a ripple effect.
The research from the book is based on raising others’ self-esteem and their sense of belonging and optimism.
VT students incorporated the same concept to initiate a cultural shift and build a stronger sense of community within their university.
Signature green AC4P wristbands are used to recognize community members when intentional acts of kindness are observed. Recipients are encouraged to then pay it forward with additional acts of kindness, thus keeping an ongoing flow of good deeds.
Each wristband is numbered and tracked across the globe.
“This is what we needed,” said April Siegel-Green, Chardon Schools’ director of the Office for Exceptional Children, after initially talking with McCarty via Skype about his group and realizing how it could benefit the Chardon community.
In May 2012 — following Chardon High School’s cafeteria shooting Feb. 27, 2012, which left three students dead, three wounded and a community shattered — Virginia Tech sent 14 undergrad and grad students to Chardon to deliver a school-wide assembly with a packed gymnasium of more than 1,100 students on the AC4P movement.
A workshop with a waiting list of students wanting to participate followed on principles to guide Chardon students with strategies for enhancing their own community and then actively caring for other communities, thus providing them an outlet to heal by helping others.
“It’s a moment in time that I will cherish forever,” Siegel-Green said. “Recounting it today still brings chills and the feeling of accomplishment.”
Fast forward more than two years later and Chardon’s AC4P continues to spread its ideas with actions, words and green silicone wristbands.
“A lot of people feel it’s a club,” said AC4P’s Dominic Ferrante, whose sister was in Chardon High School’s cafeteria during the tragedy. “It’s more of a movement. It’s definitely a lifestyle.”
Ferrante recently surprised a do-gooder corralling carts outside the Chardon Walmart and gave him a wristband.
“I introduced myself and told him to pay it forward,” Ferrante said. “It’s about the intention behind the wristband. It takes courage to come out of your comfort zone and recognize.”
Berkshire High School’s AC4P team member Megan Arnold lifted up her wrist to display her green bracelet she got for taking it upon herself to help move chairs for the event.
“It’s such a great movement,” Arnold said, one of 30 students at Berkshire involved in the movement. “It’s definitely improved our school so much. We have such a small school. The great thing is that it doesn’t end at the meetings. You can take it where you go. It gives me a purpose.”
Berkshire Schools’ guidance counselor Michelle Paluf shared her thoughts with a table full of counselors and administrators from all of the visiting schools.
“I see AC4P making a difference at Berkshire by our students’ enthusiasm and passion in the movement, wanting to take part in helping others and wearing and passing their green wristbands with pride,” she said.
On April 30, leaders of Chardon High School’s AC4P team spread their message of kindness to thousands of Ohio teens at the “We are the Majority” youth rally at the state capitol in Columbus.
“The hope is this would be something the schools could do annually,” Chardon High School counselor Joan Blackburn said of the three-day event. “We would likely move to a large venue that would allow more students to be included.”
However, next on the agenda is to develop an Ohio AC4P social media site.
“Maybe Twitter, Instagram, so that all the districts can communicate with one another and keep the energy going,” Blackburn said, who said this would be in addition to working on the middle school lessons, and continuing to generate “buzz” by doing a variety of small kindness activities within the high school.
“And eventually into the elementary schools as well as demonstrating how this movement could expand into our community on a daily basis,” Siegel-Green added.
McCarty stressed the beauty in collaboration.
“Students today are taught competition from early days and throughout adulthood that there are nearly no opportunities for students from different schools to cooperatively work for shared goals and shared missions,” McCarty said. “We see leadership as a shared process.”
Chardon, Berkshire and Orange are working together to connect with each other across districts and counties as well as grow the movement throughout both Geauga and Cuyahoga counties.
“I think the students themselves would say they want to expand the movement to the entire state,” Siegel-Green said. “They are that energized.”
Siegel-Green’s eyes lit up and widened as she zipped around the library talking to administrators and students.
“I am praying this is my legacy,” Siegel-Green said. “It means a great deal to me both professionally and personally.”
McCarty went on to explain that the movement’s philosophy offers an overall framework giving students the tools to shift their climate and culture and have them become the “change-makers” within their schools and beyond.
“It is research-based,” McCarty said. “Every school has a different culture and is unique. Beyond that and at the end of the day, there’s a more cooperative, inclusive and compassionate culture.
“My hope is when all these kids leave, they see the message we are about and take it global,” he added. “This is my calling. We are trying to make it as big as we can.”
from http://www.geaugamapleleaf.com/news/ac4pbrings-area-schools-together-inchardon/
It's about the intention behind the wristband. It takes courage to come out of your comfort zone and recognize. Dominic FerranteMy hope is when all these kids leave, they see the message we are about and take it global. This is my calling. We are trying to make it as big as we can. Shane McCartyIt's…
